Chapter 3 ; One sided love in the air
Ii waran Jamiila?
"Fiican aboowe macaan" replied Jamiila.
Jeele did not know where to start the conversation. There were a lot of things to catch up with. It was nearly 25 years!
He wanted to know a lot; his mates and not least tthe many neighbours of the xaafada.
Jeele disappeared from the radar for nearly 20 years. On coming to Germany, he was a true Somali, the kind of person who constantly gets in touch with family and friends. He called back home several times although the telephone connection did not work well. He wrote letters that describe how life was in Germany.
He was not as today’s people that exaggerate things. The kind of people who talk about coming to paradise and enticing people to live the comfort of their environments. The kind that says they have gold and greenery. The kind that take pictures of tall buildings and pose for cameras in front of expensive cars to induce buufis on folks back home.
Jeele was very honest. His letters always begun with the hardship he faced and ended with a note of optimism that he will one day return home.
Love letters also begin arriving at Bismarckstraße 21 from girls he dated and from women in the neighbourhood who got a crush on him because he was overseas.
He was a Somali to the bone. He travelled to Bonn, the then capital of West Germany to participate and commemorate 22/10, 1/7 and 1/6. At the Somali embassy, he met many Somalis who lived in Western Germany; He met among others Yusuf who was spotting a rastafari style and was accompanied by Linda- a lively German lass.
Yusuf and Jeele shared many commonalities; both of them were in the same secondary school cohort and did their national service the same year. Both of them were also on scholarship. Yusuf was a student at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universitat Münster (Münster University) in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. He attended a one year intensive German course at a volksschule (kind of adult education/vocational training school).
Jeele and Yusuf exchanged telephone contacts at one of the parties.
Yusuf promised to guide him and invited him Münster for the coming weekend. He will be Linda and Yusuf’s host.
They arrived at the historical city (it was here that the so called 30 years between catholics and proterstant ended with the signing of a treaty in the middle of the 15th century. Their house quite different. Unlike Jeele who was living in a student corridor they were living in a castle complete with guest houses, swimming pool and wine cellars.
He will later learn that Linda was of noble blood. Her great grandfather was the Duke of a a principality of Westfalen. Yusuf thought that he hit gold not only because he dated what in his mind was a beautiful woman ( looked like Helga in the 80s sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! ) but reer boqor as he will boast about.
Reflecting on this particular on this August 2013 day, Jeele could not help but laugh at the naivety of somalis at that time.
Tall and fat women were viewed as beautiful.
Yusuf and Linda were heavy smokers, smoked also something they called Ganja and were casual drinkers; Beer and German go hand in hand ; Visit Germany (specially Munchen) in October for the “oktoberfest” a 16 day orgy of beer drinking.
Jeele was at the time very traditional and conservative. Alcohol, xashiish and sex before marriage were something only infidels engaged in. Nothing for the true somali who is here on a short sojourn.
Back home in Somalia drinking alcohol was accepted but it was not something to boast about. He recalled how one day in 1987, a young somali woman was rid of her clothing. She had been drinking with the foreign diplomatic missions around the No 4 area and was probably kicked out when she started breaking something or fighting.
She had the misfortune of found drunk near African village by the ciyaalka xaafada. She was stripped naked and beaten. For many of the ciyaalka xaafada it was probably the first time they saw a naked woman and the images that come with it.
There was also Faarax who studied in the Soviet Union as a pilot in the neighborhood.
Faarax was always at Shirkoole officiale (officers’ mess) where alcohol consumption was the norm. But, he drunk more than he tolerated. He could walk from Shirkoole to the neigbourhood shouting profanities at everyone. One time, he went to the mosque in a drunken state and started praying behind the sheikh; at one of the sujuuds he shouted “ imaamka wuu dhuusay”.
When Faarax was drunk, every kid of the xaafada followed him around calling him “Alkooliste”. They were not threatening and sometimes appeared to enjoy the occasion. He could curse them, the kacaan and paradoxically make duca by calling on the kids to stand in a circle and raise their hands and say “ Ilaahow amxaarada naga qabo”.
Linda and Yusuf invited him to dinner the first night. They offered wine but Jeele said “no thank you”.
After a year in Germany and after engaging in occasional abnormalities for a somali lad of his caliber, Jeele went to the UK.
In the UK at the end of the 1980s somalis were mainly living in Wales (Cardiff) , Yorkshire and London. The oldest somali community was in Wales. The seamen that came in the 18th century. Many of them integrated well into the welsh society through intermarriages. The second group came in the 20th century to work in the Yorkshire coal mines (Sheffield, Leeds had a substantial somali community).
The majority of Somalis in London arrived in the latter part of the 20th century. They were clustered around the East end; Benthel green, Tower Hamlet and white chapel). Somalis were also beginning to settle in North East and West London; In North East London ( seven sisters, Hackney, arsenal) it was mainly somalis from the Muqdisho area; they were the Muufo-eating kind who worked in Italy before they came to London. In West London and NW somalis begun settling in Willesden, Harlesden, Wembley (few) and Ealing and Acton areas.
There were some funny stories about the first somalis in London; for instance, at the Lancaster House conference in 1960s when Kenya's constitution was negotiated- and when a referendum was agreed for the NFD- a somali delegation was sent to London to negotiate for the rights of somalis in the NFD. The delegation consisted of southerners who could not speak English and Northerners who could speak English but could not write it.
One yarn has it that on the plane, the proud somalis asked for a copy of the Herald Tribune- everyone was reading and the somalis - because of pride- did not want to be viewed as a couple of ignorant people.
One of the delegates held his paper upside down and the hostess approached him and said "Sir, you are reading the paper upside down" whereupon, the somali said in a voice that could be heard all over the plane " we somalis are very smart, we can even read upside down"
Another urban legend goes like this; the two somalis wanted to pray and one of them asked the other one; war ninyahow xageen ku tukunaa? The other one replied "maxaa dhacay meeshaan soo arli ilaah ma aha?" whereupon the other one replied "war ninyahow ma cara ayaad u jeedaa?" sidaan u imid ma anaan arag wax dhul ah.
The somali delegation succeeded in their mission; the NFD people were allowed to participate in a referendum to decide their destiny. 100% Somalis voted for joing somalia; 100% Borana muslims said yes; 100 percent of Borana christians said No and 60 % of animists said No. Despite this, Kenya said No and years of Kenyan colonialisation started.
Jeele was living with an old friend near Acton Vale. It was a really good time. Despite the problems of Somalia ( the same army that was to protect the people was bombing civilians in Hargeisa) somalis still loved each other. It was not unusual to be invited for lunch by a stranger you met on the tube or the bus. Almost all the somalis in the London area attended the same wedding.
Almost all somali asylum seeks claimed that they were members of the SNM. But, nobody really cared what tribe you belonged to. Several months later, some crazy somalis decided to have the dichotomy of North-South and engaged in acrimonious politicking but that was not common.
Now, Jamiila was in London. The Jamiila who was the faantooy of the xaafada and Jeele were talking to each other after almost 25 years!
Haye, bal ii waran? Gormaad timid Landhan?
Jamiila ; Maxaa dhow 10 sanno ka hore
Jeele; 10 sanno aa?
He wanted to sing an old song that goes;
Macariif is jecel ( friends that love each other)
Ma huraan walaala ah ( sisters and brothers who cannot live without each other)
Markaay kala maqnaadaan (when they have not met for a time)
Maanka iyo qalbigoodu (both their brains and their souls)
Waa isu soo muuqdaan ( are programmed on each other)
Ee kala maarmi meeyne ( because they cannot live without each)
But, he did not. There is no need to embarrass himself, he reasoned. In addition, play hard- remember this is Jamiila, the woman who last bid him farewell with the nasty words “noocaaga lama sheekeysto”.
Play strong nacasyahow he told himself. She could have become a mother or even a grandmother and worthy of Hassan Geene’s song “Daamankaan ku dheeraan da’ina waay ku haaysaa hadduu moodka ku dhaafo”.
Be a man!
Inaalilaahi ma 10 sanno oo dhan?
Haa aboowe macaan
This “aboowe macaan “ replies were perhaps an attempt from cajuuso la soo xumeeyey he rationalised. Thus strengthened his self-esteem.
Haye bal iiga waran noolosha? Asked Jeele forgetting for a second that he was talking to someone he never met for decades.
Noolosha waay fiicantahay? Adiga ii waran aboowe macaan? Warkaaga waa la waayey. Ma saas ayaan walaalo iyo deris ku ahayney ? Jamiila said without pausing.
A-a-b (he stopped himself from saying abaayo) walaal waan fiicanahay. Waa iska aduun. Waa la kala dhumay.
Jamiila; haa waa runtaa laakin aniga iyo adiga inaan kala dhuno ma aha; waxaan isla nahay lafihii hore, EKIS-amoore
Jeele was realising that this was getting serious; ex-amoore (ex-lover)? Something is fishy.
Jamiiloy, walaal waxaa iga dhamaaday batriga telefoonka marka beri ayaan ku soo wacayaa he said and without waiting for a reply he hung up.
He went downstairs and left for the pub.
The events of the last two or so minutes call for some reflections..
or you could both be in for a surprise
